HP Pavilion DV6-1030US 16.0-Inch Laptop

HP Pavilion DV6-1030US 16.0-Inch Laptop
From Hewlett Packard
Customer Reviews
Staples has this price beat until 6/7/09
I was looking at this machine today, and it is on sale at Staples for $599 after rebate and instant savings. I am strongly considering it, seems to be at a good price/performance point.

Just thought I'd mention it in case anyone else is ready to pull the trigger. Amazon is a decent discounter, but is not always the lowest price.

Good machine but Windows Vista only and REALLY DANGEROUS BIOS upgrade!
This is a very fine and fully loaded laptop.

I already had a previous HP pavillion dv-1030us model at home (which gave me no major problems for the last years) so I decided to stick to it.

I still did not have the chance to really use it because as soon as it arrived, I got a HP Health Check window with a list of recommended upgrades that should be applied. Pretty normal and expected since I was turning it on for the very first time, right?

Well, the 1st upgrade in the list was a BIOS upgrade, which I obviously downloaded and executed. The only problem was that the new HP Insyde BIOS flash utility for Windows Vista seems to be more of a threat than a utility. It simply popped-up a "Verify Error" message and completely frozen Windows and made the fan and HD run like crazy . Even the power button stopped working. The only way I was able to turn it off was by removing the battery. After that, the machine was completely dead! The power button didn't even light-up any of the machine's LED, not even the battery charging indicator.

I chatted with HP "support" just to know that I'd need to send the laptop for maintenance. So I decided to return it to Amazon for replacement and now I don't intend to apply any BIOS upgrades from HP any time soon.

Smokin'
I have mainly purchased dozens of Dell laptops, wary of any other brand due to warranty issues. I took a chance with HP and I am very impressed with the quality of the display, sound, and durability. I was hoping that the video card would handle GTA4 but it does not, but that's ok, all other programs run smoothly. The touchpad is smooth so it takes a bit of getting used to in order to navigate. Because of the gloss finish, it does collect fingerprints easily, so keep a cloth handy. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this laptop to any type of user.